Page 80 of How to Seduce a Slender

“You! Kevin, you’re the other part of the pack!” Melody rolled her eyes.

Kevin chuckled, “Right! Of course!”

Melody shook her head, nudging him with her elbow before ruffling Carl’s head. There was a peace over the yard she enjoyed. How quiet it was, but not an eerie quiet like the house. It still sounded of life. Of air, and trees, and chickens, it still sounded of the world outside. Melody rocked back on her heels and listened to it.

“So, uh, since we’re pack mates, then…”

Melody cracked an eye in Kevin’s direction. He grinned from ear to ear as he scrambled into the barn. Carl barked and raced after him. Melody glanced around in confusion, unsure if she was meant to follow. Then the two came trotting back, both holding onto long ends of a wrapping paper tube. Something dangled from it roast over a spit style.

“I originally got it as a thank you for helping Carl. But maybe it’s just a good welcome to the pack present?” The two of them held the tube up high so she could untie the twine around the wrapped present attached to it. Melody couldn’t help the giddy wiggle as she undid the paper.

“A garden trowel?” Melody’s voice wobbled as she looked up at Kevin with teary eyes.

“Yeah! You know, so you have something to defend yourself with and you don’t have to borrow mine. It’s kinda rusty and crusty, anyhow. But now we can get Carl a pup safe trowel and it’ll be like a symbol or something. The Digging Pack? Oh! Or! Or the Garden Buddies!”

Melody threw her arms around Kevin without a moment of hesitation. “The Garden Buddies! I love it!”

Carl nosed his way up into their arms as the two hugged him tightly. Melody had been joking about the pack part until he’d given it a name. Now it meant something. Now she had a pack. Now she wasn’t just a lost little wolf in the woods.

She was a werewolf with a pack and a garden trowel and a Slender…she wasn’t alone.

Melody peeled away from Kevin, using her new trowel to scrape some of the zombie goo off her dress as it stretched between them. He laughed sheepishly, picking some of the gooier parts of him off her. “Sorry, I hope I didn’t ruin your dress.”

“That’s what soap’s for,” she chuckled, shaking her head. “And besides, what’s a little sludge between pack mates, huh?”

“Carl slimes me all the time! But, you know, the difference being sometimes his slobber burns.” Kevin bobbed his head as he spoke. Carl panted, tongue out, tail wagging like a flaming tornado. Melody’s cheeks ached from the smile on her face. With a little nod, clutching the trowel to her chest, she turned back toward the house. Then, slowly, she stopped and turned back to Kevin.

“Hey, Kevin?”

“Ya-huh?” He grabbed onto his trowel, scratching his brain with it.

“How did you know how to speak squirrel? You said you’ve always known?”

“Well, you know, the brain Lord Rosemont gave me knew a bunch about seeds and gardening and livestock, as well as a bunch of languages. I also know dragon and elvish and dwarfish and something weird that sounds like hissing? Oh! And I can speak to birds too, but only big ones, mostly vultures. Whoever’s brain this is—er was pretty smart…why?” He cocked his head to the side.

“You mean…your brain?” She furrowed her brow. Kevin made an ‘o’ face as something played across his features. Melody giggled, “Kevin, the brain in your head is yours, so it’s your brain. You’re smart.”

“Yeah,” he grinned a lobsided grin, hands on his hips in a power stance. “I am pretty smart.”

Melody left him to his preening as she walked back toward the house. Warmth pooled in her chest as she stepped up the porch and nearly flattened her face on Smith’s chest as he came out the door.

Chapter Twenty-Eight:

Smith

“Whathappenedtoyourdress?” he chuckled, hands lovingly cupping her biceps. Looking down at his werewolf, she was covered in hay, goo, and other things she definitely didn’t have on her when she left him in the office. After collecting himself and thanking Agatha for her companionship, he sought out his lovely Melody…only to find her dress soiled and her face illuminated. She clutched a garden trowel to her chest.

“Kevin gave me a hug,” She giggled with a shrug before shoving the trowel toward him. “Look! I’m a part of a pack now!”

“That’s nice?” He wasn’t sure what to call it or what the garden trowel had to do with pack dynamics. Was the giving of a tool typical of werewolves? He’d never heard of it. But the way she wiggled back and forth in his arm like the swaying of a pup’s tail told him she cherished it. “I’m glad…who is your pack?”

He also didn’t know of any other werewolves in the house.

“Kevin, Carl, and I.”

Oh.

“The triple threat,” he chuckled again, taking a step back to look over her again. “Come, let’s get you out of these clothes.”

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